Google's Internet Saathi program reaches women, children in one lakh villages

Live in ten states in India, 25,000 fully trained Internet Saathis are working everyday across these villages to help women and children learn about the InternetSurabhi Agarwal | ET Bureau | August 03, 2017, 08:00 IST

(Thinkstock Images)American Internet giant, Google India said that it has reached a milestone of 100,000 villages with its Internet Saathi program which was launched as a pilot in Rajasthan in July 2015 along with Tata Trusts.

Google will also be expanding the program in two new states - Haryana and Bihar.

Sapna Chadha, director marketing, South East Asia and India, Google said, “From being afraid to touch a smartphone, worried that they will spoil it, to now demanding services that can help them get more from the Internet - women in rural India have come a long way. Even as India has taken the lead to become the fastest growing Internet user market in the world, India’s Internet is still dominated by male users. The digital gender divide is even wider in rural India where digital literacy amongst women continues to be a challenge, this combined with socio-economic challenges are the major barriers that prevent women from using the Internet.”

Live in ten states in India, 25,000 fully trained Internet Saathis are working everyday across these villages to help women and children learn about the Internet. In total, over 10 million women have gained from the program, said Google.

In Haryana, the program has already started to roll out and will be covering around 1000 villages and in Bihar the program has kicked off from Ramnagar, Bagaha, Lauria, Manjha and Chakai villages and we will be covering over 7000 villages expanding it further later in the year.